Ubisoft: PS4 is so powerful it gave us a ‘chance to dream’

Ubisoft is all praises about Sony’s new console.

Ubisoft’s upcoming, highly anticipated game Watch Dogs may be finding itself in the middle of a controversy regarding its downgraded visuals right now, but the game is still a highly impressive feat by all accounts- it is a persistently online and connected open world experience unlike anything we have seen before- possibly the first true ‘next gen’ title of this console cycle.

Talking about the game on the PlayStation Blog, Ubisoft’s developers said that a lot of the game’s bold design was thanks to how powerful the PlayStation 4 is as a machine.

“PS4 has really given us the platform to build a new type of game,” Watch Dogs animation director Colin Graham said. “It gave us a chance to dream. From an animation point of view, we’re always running out of memory, especially when you start developing towards the end of a console generation, so PS4 allowed things like reduced animation compression and more variety in civilians.

“From my point of view, it’s a bit like working with an unlimited budget because we can’t fill the memory budget on PS4. It’s a really nice piece of hardware.”

He wasn’t the only one so liberal with his praise. The lead gameplay designer Danny Belanger for the title also had nice things to say about the system.

“The powerful technology helped us create a better simulation,” Belanger said. “The water effects, the amount of people in the city, the quality of the lighting… it all brings us a step forward.”

Watch Dogs is due out for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox one on May 27; a Wii U version is planned for sometime later (although Ubisoft won’t say exactly when).